Undefeated Eagles ground EG

EAST GREENWICH—Barrington’s Mary Coogan, Kelly Dolan and Madeline Soutter are three of the best girls lacrosse players in the state.
Tuesday at East Greenwich they showed why.
The Barrington trio combined for 10 goals as the Eagles went on to down the Avengers 17-7 Tuesday in a battle of Division I leaders.
“This team is the best team in the state, we knew that and they played like it,” senior Marielle Kraft said. “They never let down no matter what the score is on the board and to have them be denying us the entire game was really difficult.
“We tried to fight through it, we got some points on the board, made a little bit of a run but at the end of the day they’re a really talented team and we just couldn’t get it done.”
On a cold, damp evening the Eagles came out on fire and hung four goals on the scoreboard in the first three minutes of the game.
The Avengers finally scored with 17:44 remaining on a goal
from senior Roxanne Comito but Barrington had the answer with another string of four unanswered goals to take an 8-1 lead.
Junior Carolyn Cruise ended the Eagles’ streak with a goal with 5:19 to play in the half but Barrington notched two more to take a 10-2 lead at the break.
The Avengers were far more competitive in the second half than they were in the first – only trailing the visitors by two goals for the second frame – but at that point the damage had been done.
“We haven’t played a team that’s as good as them yet,” Comito said. “We’ve had tough matches just not this tough.”
Comito finished the game with three goals for the Avengers, Cruise netted a pair and seniors Kraft and Julia Waicberg added one score apiece.
As it has been for the past few seasons, the matchup with Barrington is the litmus test for where the Avengers stand.
After being held to single-digit goals for the first time all season it is apparent that EG has a ways to go to get to that next level but the way it played in the second half offered some encouraging signs.
“It shows that we can step up,” senior Gwen Luvara said. “As we work harder and when we meet them again we can step up and we can grow to be the team that will beat them.”
East (4-2, 4-2 Division I-South) is currently in its most challenging stretch of games in its schedule with a trip to Cumberland Friday for a 6 p.m. start, followed by a 6:30 p.m. game at LaSalle Tuesday.
“The teams that we have coming on our schedule on this side of the bracket – which is Barrington, LaSalle, Bay View, Moses Brown and Cumberland – every single one of those teams is going to give us a run no matter what,” Kraft said.
“We have to be able to prepare for these teams and we have to know that this is the kind of level we’ll be seeing the next few weeks.
“We’re not taking any team lightly at this point. Barrington’s a great example. We can’t afford to take any moment of any game lightly because if we do we’ll never compete.”